the place where the latter met the great novelist for the first
time, was quite certain as to the year when he met her. Chopin,
Franchomme informed me, made George Sand's acquaintance in 1837,
their connection was broken in 1847, and he died, as everyone
knows, on October 17, 1849. In each of these dates appears the
number which Chopin regarded with a superstitious dread, which he
avoided whenever he could-for instance, he would not at any price
take lodgings in a house the number of which contained a seven--
and which may be thought by some to have really exercised a fatal
influence over him. It is hardly necessary to point out that it
was this fatal number which fixed the date in Franchomme's
memory.

But supposing Chopin and George Sand to have really met at the
Marquis de Custine's, was this their first meeting?

[FOONOTE: That they were on one occasion both present at a party
given by the Marquis de Custine may be gathered from Freiherr von
Flotow's Reminiscences of his life in Paris (published in the
"Deutsche Revue" of January, 1883, p. 65); but not that this was
their first meeting, nor the time when it took place. As to the
character of this dish of reminiscences, I may say that it is
sauced and seasoned for the consumption of the blase magazine
reader, and has no nutritive substance whatever.]

I put the question to Liszt in the course of a conversation I had
with him some years ago in Weimar. His answer was most positive,
and to the effect that the first meeting took place at Chopin's
own apartments. "I ought to know best," he added, "seeing that I
was instrumental in bringing the two together." Indeed, it would